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Appointments

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"Appointments"

About: Bridgnorth Medical Practice

I have tried on several occasions to get an appointment and the system that has been allocated by the Dr's is most certainly not in the interests of the patients, you can call from 8 30 in the morning for up to 20 minutes or more only to be told there are no appointments available, you can book 4 weeks in advance which would be great if you could calculate when you will be ill ? you can rarely see the Dr that you want so no continuity of care, also I feel there is no consideration for people who work full time and cannot just sit and wait for up to an hour to be seen at the sit and wait appointments.

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Responses

Response from Bridgnorth Medical Practice 5 years ago
Bridgnorth Medical Practice

Submitted on 11/01/2019 at 10:18
Published on nhs.uk at 11:05

I am sorry to hear that this patient is not satisfied with the service we provide.

Unfortunately there is a national shortage of doctors, a problem not specific to Bridgnorth.

We have lost 4 doctors in the last 2 years and have been unable to recruit replacements despite regular advertising, and struggle to find locum doctors to help out - another national problem.

The partners therefore made the decision, in line with NHS England policies, to recruit other clinicians such as nurse practitioners and urgent care practitioners (who are highly skilled paramedics) to form an urgent care team led by one of our doctors.

This does, however, mean that at present we offer far more same day appointments than routine appointments which can be booked ahead.

This team is fairly new and it is anticipated that in a few months it will enable the doctors to focus on routine and follow up appointments.

We do offer late evening and Saturday morning appointments which are suitable for working patients.

The wait in the morning for calls to be answered is purely due to the volume of calls coming through to us.

We have a new telephone system in place and will be monitoring the volume of calls and timings over the next few months.

Sandra Sutton

Practice Manager

Bridgnorth Medical Practice

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